On Texas talk radio, Donald Trump is still a fighter. But is he a winner?

Donald Trump’s voters haven’t moved on.

But conservative talk radio has.

Republicans should thank Trump for the Supreme Court and move on, KSKY/660 AM host Mark Davis told a mostly unconvinced audience Friday.

The party needs a less worry-prone candidate who can win in 2024 and again in 2028, the 28-year morning radio host told listeners the morning after House committee witnesses portrayed Trump as selfishly happy during the Jan. 6 mob attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Both Davis and fellow Salem Radio Network host Mike Gallagher depicted Trump as a fighter but no longer a winner.

“My email inbox this morning is full of letters from listeners saying, ‘I’m sorry, I can’t do it — he’s too much, he’s too polarizing, it’s too awful,’ ” Gallagher said.

The conversation came after a hearing that focused on Trump’s “187 minutes” of inaction during the violent attack by patriot-movement activists and militia groups.

It also came after a poll by Virginia-based Echelon Insights found that Trump remains Republicans’ favorite for the 2024 presidential nomination, but also that a growing number of party voters favor Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and view Trump as too obsessed with the 2020 outcome.

Republicans are pondering whether Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (left) or former President Donald Trump, shown together in 2020, are their best bet for 2024. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
Republicans are pondering whether Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (left) or former President Donald Trump, shown together in 2020, are their best bet for 2024. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

Davis’ listeners on Irving-based KSKY, a Christian conservative talk station, weren’t all buying it.

After Davis opened his show with the stop-and-start audio outtakes from Trump’s White House video calling for peace at the Capitol — including Trump refusing to say, “The election is over” — the first caller was “Rick in Sherman.”

“I’m a little torn on how I would vote in a primary,” he told Davis.

(That’s the first time in six years I’ve heard any of Davis’ conservative callers say they might not vote for Trump.)

Bumper stickers supporting Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on sale at former President Donald Trump’s rally in Conroe, Texas, Saturday, Jan. 29, 2022. At Trump’s rally, there were signs of change. Next to the Trump hats, shirts and flags sat a collection of Ron “DeSantis 2024” bumper stickers. The vast majority of those interviewed at Trump’s rally enthusiastically cheered the prospect of another Trump run. But there were some who conceded that, perhaps, there might be a better option. (AP Photo/Jill Colvin)

“I think another four years of him would be an absolute, total distraction from everything we want to get done,” Rick said.

He said he’d like to see DeSantis atop a ticket with former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

But later callers defended Trump.

“Trump has my vote locked and loaded all the way,” said “Mike in Rockwall.”

A “Bob in Dallas” argued that Trump doesn’t have too much baggage.

“The media has too much baggage,” he said.

The only Tarrant County caller was “Renee in Keller.”

She said she hopes to see the 2020 election overturned and Trump restored to finish the term, then run in 2024.

Davis’ chuckling reply: “Ain’t gonna happen.”

After the show, Davis wrote in a message that he is open to talk about DeSantis as the nominee “partially because its appeal grows for me, and I sense a growing appetite for it.”

He estimated the share of his audience that prefers DeSantis over Trump as “10 growing to 20 percent, maybe less, maybe more. The big question is, might we see it grow near or beyond a majority as the midterms pass and the time approaches for a serious assessment of what every candidate brings to the table?”

Nothing is certain at this point. Trump has not officially announced but continues to send fundraising appeals and raise money. DeSantis may not have staying power.

On the show, Davis also mentioned Pompeo and U.S. Sens. Tom Cotton and Marco Rubio. He downplayed the chances of former Vice President Mike Pence and former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley.

Voters’ preferences will shift at a “very slow and gradual pace,” he wrote.

“The talk show gods are smiling no matter what.”

For ratings’ sake, there’ll be lots of talk about Trump. But not only about Trump.

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